Thursday, March 24, 2016

This blog post is by Schenectady County Historical Society member Phyllis Zych Budka. Phyllis, along with Bernice Izzo, publishes the Project to Discover Schenectady County's Eastern European Roots newsletter which can be found at http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/eer/index.html.

Fig. 1 Honor Roll of St. Adalbert's
from unknown newspaper.

Opening
a large plastic box from the attic, I steeled myself for the memories and
emotions that would inevitably emerge.I
sat in the January sunshine and went page by page through my husband, Al’s St.
Adalbert’s elementary school scrapbook and realized that it was both a family
treasure and an historical document.

As
a scrapbook, it is amazingly complete.Alfred John Budka (1936 – 1992) aka Freddie by family and Al by those
who met him “after 7th grade,” was an only child.His Mother, Henrietta, kept a record of Al’s
kindergarten through 8th grade years at St. Adalbert’s elementary
school in Schenectady, New York.On
Henrietta’s death in 1965, this scrapbook and many other family items, were
boxed and stored.

Al
and I grew up in the same Mont Pleasant community, about a mile apart.Al was more than 5 years older than I and 6
years ahead of me in St. Adalbert’s school.I was surprised to find myself in his scrapbook in a few places: first,
a newspaper article from ~1948 (Fig. 1) “Honor Roll Listed at St. Adalbert’s,”
has the name Alfred Budka, grade 7, and me, with my surname misspelled, grade
1.The picture in Figure 2 was taken
about 1949, when Al was in 8th grade and I was in 2nd
grade.Also in the picture are my twin
cousins, Gerard and Geraldine Zych, who were 2 years behind me in school.Surrounding the children are the Sisters of
the Resurrection, our teachers.The
picture was taken on the 3rd floor of the school building, the room
which served as gym, theater, and the place of our wedding reception in 1964.

Fig 2. All grads of St. Adalbert's School from 1948.

As
an historical document, this scrapbook describes the life not only of one
person, Alfred John Budka, but also captures the life of the community in which
Al and I grew up, a community which no longer exists.

Friday, March 11, 2016

Oswald D. Heck, a native of Schenectady, was a lawyer and
politician and perhaps New York State’s most influential legislator of the 20th
century. The name “O.D. Heck” may be familiar to area residents as the name of
the now closed center for developmental disabilities on Balltown Road in
Niskayuna, a target of tragic controversy in recent years, but its namesake,
Oswald D. Heck, had a longstanding career as an assemblyman filled with positive
social impact throughout New York State. As a liberal Republican, he served as
Speaker of the House under four governors. Heck’s actions throughout his tenure
redefined Republicans as moderate liberals and progressives, in line with
Republican governors Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. He described his
philosophy as a conservative attitude in economics and a gentle, understanding
attitude in human relations, and had an impressive ability to build support for
controversial measures. He is also the longest-tenured Assembly speaker in New
York State history; the only other speaker who came close to surpassing his
tenure was Sheldon Silver, who was found guilty of federal corruption charges
and was forced to forfeit his Assembly seat in 2015. Heck served as Assembly
speaker until his death in 1959.

Heck was born in 1902 in Schenectady, NY, to Magdalena
Wurster Heck and Oswald E. Heck. His father was the editor of Schenectady’s
German language newspaper as well as a poet who published Leben und Weben, or Life and
its Weavings, in the early 1920’s which was a collection of poetry on
moral, religious and philosophical problems (Check out previous post Newspapers of Schenectady's Immigrants for more on Oswald E. Heck). Oswald Jr. was a graduate of Union College and attended Albany Law
School but left in a dispute with a school official who considered him to be
too liberal. He completed his legal education by educating himself, and was
admitted to the state bar in 1928.

Heck and his wife Beulah studying the results of the 1950 Assembly race.
Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Library clippings file.

Heck began his unprecedented tenure as speaker in 1937. No
one had held the post for more than 10 years at that point, and at the time of
his election in office, he was only 34 – the youngest to hold the position in
30 years. During his inaugural year as Speaker, he rallied fellow Assembly
Republicans to overthrow the incumbent speaker who blocked the necessary
legislation to qualify the state for federal funding of programs passed through
Social Security. From 1937 to 1941, he led a successful battle against
Democratic governor Herbert Lehman to achieve legislative control over the
state budget. In 1942, he worked towards state financial assistance for
education in Schenectady County, increasing from $1,220,000 in 1942 to an
estimated $5,495,000 in 1958-59. In addition, he created 30,000 scholarships
and a student loan fund which broadened the opportunity for higher education
for students of Schenectady. During World War II, Heck headed the state’s
childcare program that provided childcare for mothers employed in defense
plants, and at its height in 1945, more than 10,800 children were enrolled
throughout New York State.

Closing of Ettore Mancuso's speech on his radio program "The Italian Hour".
Mancuso was very influential with Schenectady's Italian-American community and was
heavily in favor of Heck over Samuel Stratton in the 1950 Speaker of the Assembly race.
Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Library Collection

﻿﻿In 1944, a bill to replace a supervisor’s board with a
single superintendent of education in New York City appeared near the end of
the last day of that year’s session. Governor Thomas Dewey insisted on passage,
but the teachers union opposed it. Republican assemblymen tried to duck out of
the chamber to avoid going on record, but Heck ordered the sergeant at arms to
round up the missing legislators, closed the door, and called for a vote. The
bill was passed after one assemblyman was discovered hiding under his desk and
reluctantly voted for the bill after Heck discovered him.

He was also instrumental in making New York the first state
to enact an important civil rights legislation; in 1945, when the Assembly
debated Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination Bill instituted by Thomas Dewey to ban
employment discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color and ethnicity, Heck
left the speaker’s podium and went to the floor to make a powerful appeal for
passage. New York became the first state to enact this legislation, and it also
became the first state to establish permanent agency to enforce such
legislation, now known as the State Commission against Discrimination. In 1968,
the Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination Law was renamed the Human Rights Law, and
the State Commission Against Discrimination was renamed the New York State
Division of Human Rights. The Law has been expanded over the years to stay
current with changing American culture and the evolving needs of New Yorkers.

In 1958, Heck made a drive for his party’s gubernatorial
nomination. Heck dreamed of running for governor himself, was driven by the
less-than-noble partisan moves of Averell Harriman and Herbert Lehmen, and was
mentioned frequently as a potential nominee to oppose Harriman’s bid for
re-election. However, he was disabled by a circulatory ailment in his feet, and
he threw his support to Nelson Rockefeller who was nominated and elected.

Photo of Nelson Rockefeller and Thomas E. Dewey as they enter Heck's funeral. Courtesy of a May 26, 1959 Daily Gazette article found at Fulton New York Postcards.

Oswald D. Heck served as Speaker of the New York
State Assembly until his untimely death by heart attack in 1959, and was buried
at Vale Cemetery. His funeral took place at the Nott Memorial at Union College,
and was attended by Nelson Rockefeller and Thomas Dewey, as well as hundreds of
the top legislators and leaders of the state and local citizens. Based on his
history of willingness to compromise and reach across party lines to come up
with solutions to problems, the state Legislature could learn a lot from Heck’s
leadership style. Citizens tend to judge the legislature by what they read or
hear about its leaders; the legal, ethical and moral standards exhibited by
legislative leaders set the tone for how legislators approach their public
responsibilities. During Heck’s tenure, scandals were rare and public
confidence was high. The principles he supported – cost efficient but
responsible government, avoiding impasse and moving legislation along, and
partisanship aligned behind public good – are valid and timely today.